Some College Men Challenging Obama Admin's "Guilty Until Proven Innocent" Standard
Accusations of sex crimes -- and this seems obvious -- should be made to law enforcement and dealt with in our courts, and not the kangaroo courts popping up on campuses across the country.
Ashe Schow writes in the Wash Ex that men are striking back against campus rules that deny them due process by assuming they are guilty.
This comes out of a reinterpretation of Title IX by the Obama administration, and their forcing on college campuses new guidelines that require a low preponderance of evidence for sexual assault claims.
Schow reports that Kevin Parisi is one of those fighting back:
Kevin Parisi is 5 feet, 5 inches tall and barely weighs 120 pounds.He's hunched over and walking with a cane after back surgery earlier this year. He suffers from severe anxiety and digestive disorders, along with extreme allergies and panic attacks.
But in his junior year at Drew University in Madison, N.J., Parisi was accused of forcing a fellow student -- one who is now a professional athlete -- to have sex with him.
He was kicked off campus and placed under investigation. Three months went by before he was found "not responsible" in a campus disciplinary proceeding. Local police never filed charges against him.
Being accused, however, was enough to cause his world to collapse. Now he is suing Drew for assuming he was guilty from the outset and treating him as such until it was determined he was innocent.
He is also suing his accuser and her boyfriend at the time, claiming they concocted the false allegation to preserve their relationship. The Washington Examiner has chosen not to publish their names.
"The whole world seems hopeless and like, your heart pounds and the world -- the walls -- kind of close in on you," Parisi, 21, told the Examiner of his frequent panic attacks, which he says were made worse by the allegations.
"It's just, it's ... If you haven't experienced one, I don't know how you could understand. It's just really -- dread. A sense of dread. Nothing's ever going to be better," he said.
Think of what this takes out of a person's life -- in time and money and emotionally.
Nobody has a right to do this -- to subject a person to this degraded form of "justice." At least in off-campus courts, there's a chance of due process.
I. That reason doesn't make sense. How would making a false allegation together 'save' their relationship? I could see her cheating on her boyfriend, then claiming rape to keep from getting caught...but then if she concocted the lie WITH the boyfriend how would that help?
II. How in the hell is a college entitled to investigate CRIMES? The ONLY response appropriate is to report the allegation to authorities and let them do their jobs.
Robert at August 12, 2014 12:38 AM
How in the hell is a college entitled to investigate CRIMES?
They aren't. They're being forced by the Federal Government. The stick? you'll lose your federal funding if Big Brother doesn't think you're investigating your rapist students intensely enough.
With all this rapin' goin' on, I'm thinkin' we ought to go back to all male and all female schools.
I R A Darth Aggie at August 12, 2014 6:35 AM
" I could see her cheating on her boyfriend, then claiming rape to keep from getting caught"
Robert, when I read the article, that is pretty much what seems to have happened.
"I didn't cheat on you, he raped me!"
"That's terrible! Let's go to the police then"
"Uh, yeah, uh sure, let me get my purse"
I am no way defending the colleges, I think what they are doing is horribly wrong, but I do think that when given an allegation, the colleges do have an obligation to ALL of their students to protect all of the students including the accused.
That would probably entail giving the cops the allegation immediately and working with the cops so the cops and their team can rapidly investigate the situation enough to determine if there is any likelihood of violence from either party.
Then assuming there is not, I'd consider moving both students to different housing and issuing them both orders from the university to stay away from each other and let criminal proceedings take place.
jerry at August 12, 2014 10:31 AM
At least in off-campus courts, there's a chance of due process.
As I've pointed out elsewhere, in a real court there's also a chance of being sentenced to 20 years in prison, rather than merely being expelled from college (which is actually more than happened to Parisi). Be careful what you wish for.
Rex Little at August 12, 2014 12:18 PM
Just FYI, most every college campus has its own police force, including detectives. Even high schools - LAUSD has one of the biggest police depts in the country.
The jurisdictional issues are not all that clear when things like this happen.
carol at August 12, 2014 3:31 PM
Despite what Carol says there are many that don't have a full investigative units and just have the basic police services such as traffic enforcement and such. Or none at all and depend on the LEO in the local area for law enforcement.
The other thing about have the LEO's not tied to the school is they aren't tied to the agenda. So without that agenda looming over their shoulders they are more likely to look at the facts. Like a 120 pound man is not likely to have committed forcible rape against a 130 pounds female athlete.
Jim P. at August 12, 2014 5:27 PM
Amy Alkon
https://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/08/some-college-me.html#comment-4935953">comment from Jim P.Yes -- if you do not have your priorities redirected because funding from the Obama Administration to your university depends on your kowtowing to it, there's a whole different standard you are going by. Plus, if you are accused of a crime, do you really want an older version of the high school student council deciding your fate?
Amy Alkon
at August 12, 2014 5:33 PM
As I've pointed out elsewhere, in a real court there's also a chance of being sentenced to 20 years in prison, rather than merely being expelled from college (which is actually more than happened to Parisi). Be careful what you wish for.
Posted by: Rex Little at August 12, 2014 12:18 PM
Sure there is, but the fact that the penalties with due process are even worse, is not much of an argument.
The court system will tend to not look at 'he said, she said 'evidence, and an accusation made months after the supposed crime.
It is called 'reasonable doubt'
The court system also comes with some pretty stiff penalties for perjury, which is why feminists would like to prevent these cases from being adjudicated at all in a real court.
Isab at August 12, 2014 5:34 PM
The court system will tend to not look at 'he said, she said 'evidence, and an accusation made months after the supposed crime.
It is called 'reasonable doubt'
The court system also comes with some pretty stiff penalties for perjury
Sure, these protections work most of the time. But there are cases--Amy has posted some of them--where a man was convicted and spent years in jail before his accuser came forward and retracted her story.
Also, while there are plenty of examples of men who were denied due process by colleges, it's not clear to me that Parisi was one of them. Yes, he was removed from campus during the investigation, but due process doesn't mean a defendant suffers no hardship until proven guilty. A criminal defendant can spend weeks in jail awaiting trial, unless he's flush with cash to spare for bail, or pays a bondsman thousands of dollars he'll never get back. Or if, say, a policeman is accused of misconduct, he'll typically be suspended while the charge is investigated.
In the end, the investigation didn't railroad Parisi, as has happened to so many other college men. It cleared him.
Rex Little at August 12, 2014 10:31 PM
where a man was convicted and spent years in jail before his accuser came forward and retracted her story
Sadly most of those cases, though not all, are men who were brow beaten into taking a plea deal by an overzealous prosecutor coupled with an incompetent public defender.
lujlp at August 13, 2014 4:15 AM
where a man was convicted and spent years in jail before his accuser came forward and retracted her story
Sadly most of those cases, though not all, are men who were brow beaten into taking a plea deal by an overzealous prosecutor coupled with an incompetent public defender.
lujlp at August 13, 2014 4:15 AM
"As I've pointed out elsewhere, in a real court there's also a chance of being sentenced to 20 years in prison, rather than merely being expelled from college (which is actually more than happened to Parisi). Be careful what you wish for.
Posted by: Rex Little at August 12, 2014 12:18 PM"
Also in a real rape, you can get both the star chamber treatment from the college, and a real trial down at the local court house.
One doesn't preclude the other, so why you think college justice is necessary, or preferable is the question?
Isab at August 13, 2014 7:29 AM
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